Irish Water has this week begun the process to take in charge the administration of 12,975 business customer accounts in Dublin City.

The change will see responsibility for account administration for existing business customers in Dublin City move to Irish Water from Local Authorities. Charges for business customers, credit terms and the frequency of billing will remain unchanged while the transition is taking place.

Business customers in Dublin City will now have a single point of customer contact for all queries in relation to water supply, wastewater treatment and business account management. Irish Water will contact all 12,975 business customers and other affected groups in Dublin City directly, once the transition takes place. Bills will be issued from Irish Water directly, as they fall due, from November onwards.

Irish Water took over responsibility for providing public water services to business customers in January 2014. Before then Local Authorities billed businesses for water services provided to them and they have continued to issue bills on behalf of Irish Water on an interim basis since then. A process is now beginning to transfer this billing process to Irish Water as part of the transition of water service delivery from Local Authorities to Irish Water.

Irish Water began the process of billing transfer on a phased basis in mid-July and to date, administration for counties Meath, Monaghan, Longford, Cork City, Carlow, Wicklow, Louth, Leitrim, Cavan, Fingal, South Dublin, Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown, Offaly and Laois have successfully been transferred to the utility. Prior to bills being issued, Irish Water is contacting customers directly in each county to explain what is happening. 

Irish Water is investing in the water and wastewater infrastructure in Dublin City. €5.4 million was invested in Phase 1 of a larger project needed to complete the old North Fringe Trunk Watermain around Dublin City. This phase of the project secured the water supply to approximately 17,000 customers in the Clontarf and Fairview areas with the construction of 2.1km of new trunk mains. It also improved the water quality by providing a new chlorine dosing station and chlorine analysis facilities.

€860,000 is currently being invested in the next phase of the project. This watermain will facilitate water transfer from all major production facilities and provide security of water supply for areas in North Dublin. The project is expected to be completed in 2017.

€28 million will be invested in the next phase of the Dublin Region water mains Rehabilitation project which will replace 73km of old water pipes and save 1.6 million litres of water currently lost through leakage in the region each day. Active leak management measures, water leakage reduction, pressure control and water quality improvements will also be implemented. Sections of water mains in the poorest condition will be replaced first with the project expected to be completed in 2019.

Irish Water is also progressing with a project to upgrade the Ringsend Wastewater Treatment Plant. The Ringsend Wastewater Treatment Plant was originally designed to treat wastewater for a capacity of 1.64 million population equivalent (PE) but is now operating over that capacity at 1.9 million PE. This project is vital to address that challenge and provide future capacity at the plant. Irish Water intends to apply to An Bord Pleanála in 2017 for permission to upgrade and expand the Ringsend Wastewater Treatment Plant.